Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has told President Muhammadu Buhari that it is abuse of power if he allows his children to use the presidential jet for personal engagements.
Mr. Falana said this in a statement on Sunday, noting that children of the President have no right to convert the presidential jet to personal use.
He was reacting to the claim by the Buhari’s media aide, Garba Shehu, who had said that by tradition all members of the first family have the right to use the presidential jet for private engagements.
The senior advocate of Nigeria asked Mr. Buhari to apologise to Nigerians rather than justify the act.
He reminded him that Nigeria, as the poverty capital of the world, cannot continue wasting over N8bn yearly on maintaining presidential jets.
Falana urged the president to honour his pledge to reduce the cost of governance and reduce the number of planes in the Presidential fleet.
He said, “With respect, the statement credited to the Presidency is incorrect as it is at variance with the official policy of the Federal Government. In other words, the official policy does not authorise the children of the President to use the Presidential jets to attend to private social functions.
“In fact, there is no precedent whatsoever for such privatisation of the presidency of Nigeria. Having publicly declared that his administration would maintain ‘a compact and reliable aircraft for the safe airlift of the President, the Vice-President and other government officials that go on special missions’ President Buhari is stopped from allowing members of the first family to use the jets for their private affairs.
“In view of the foregoing, we call on President Buhari to stop the members of his family from using any of the aircraft in the presidential fleet with a view to cutting down on waste. A country that is said to be the headquarters of the greatest number of poverty-stricken people in the world cannot afford to waste billions of naira on the use of Presidential aircraft and hiring of commercial jets by state governors that are owing workers several months of unpaid salaries.”
Hanan, Buhari’s daughter, had own Thursday used the presidential jet to attend a private event in Bauchi State, where she was invited to take pictures as a professional photographer and make a catalogue of Bauchi arts and culture.
Nigerians were outraged.
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